Implications of the OECD Comparative Study of Performance Standards for Educational Reform in the United States.

Baker, Eva L.

This paper discusses the implications for educational reform in the United States of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) comparative study of performance standards. To provide some context for the reader, the paper briefly reprises major shifts in the intellectual underpinnings of U.S. educational reform and reports on its present prospects. The major analytical section, however, posits a functional model of reform that includes key elements thought to be necessary for successful operation of a dynamic educational system. This model uses inputs, process, and output categories as a way to classify functions served by reform in various countries rather than a structure to subsume data sources. As a special case, performance standards are characterized as they support different elements and functions of reform as described in country case studies provided by OECD scholars, with particular emphasis on the U.S. setting. The ways the U.S. and other governments could profit from the OECD case studies of performance standards are explored. The OECD reports help educators imagine multiple uses for performance standards. (SLD)